"And we've got plenty more on Peter Robinson....."

Continuing to mine a rich seam of American comedy this morning, you'll remember this episode of the Simpsons.

After Chief Wiggum imposes a curfew, the children of Springfield exact revenge by broadcasting secrets about the adult population. They're quite literally attempting to get their way on policing and justice issues using media as leverage.

Remind anyone of any real life situations?

Last weekend the DUP was supposed to be collecting its figurative teeth from the carpet after high profile revelations in a Sunday newspaper. The stories failed to emerge. Instead, party representatives were reportedly holed up in Hertfordshire, meeting Owen Paterson.

Stability for the DUP was maintained for a week, at least.

With the DUP leaking like a sieve, much to the Tories' displeasure and the talks at Stormont reportedly close to collapse, this could be more of a stay of execution than a genuine reprieve.

Comments

Belfast Gonzo said…
This is too weird. We were both writing blogs about the DUP/UCUNF meeting and thinking about Chief Wiggum at the same time...
21 January 2010 at 10:10
Owen Polley said…
Look forward to reading your Wiggum based analysis Gonzo!
21 January 2010 at 10:23
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Football fever in Russia

Russia Blog is getting excited about Euro 2008. Indeed it is drawing parallels between Guus Hiddink and Peter the Great in terms of successful Russo-Dutch exchanges of expertise. Meanwhile, in Moscow, fans have been taking to the streets in order to celebrate the national team’s achievements.
Read more

Shia Revival

The Iranian author, Vali Nasr, has written an interesting book called The Shia Revival: How conflicts within Islam will shape the future .  Its argument is exceptionally pertinent at a time when European governments are edging toward arming Sunni extremists in Syria. Nasr portrays Shiism as the more liberal, palatable strand of Islam and a religion for underdogs.  He makes his point persuasively, although putting a progressive gloss on the regime in Iran and Hezbollah does undermine his thesis. A lot of the material is focussed on Iraq, where there is a Shia majority, which was suppressed during the presidency of Saddam Hussein.  The leading cleric, Ayatollah Sistani, is depicted as a moderating influence, who opposed retaliation as Sunni extremism threatened to cause sectarian civil war. The book’s opening chapter provides an erudite and fascinating history of factions within Islam.  The split dates back to the origins of the faith and a dispute over the prophet Mohammed’
Read more

Walker loada rubbish

Former BBC employee Brian Walker has overrun Slugger O’Toole lately with countless poorly structured, poorly written posts. It is possible quickly to recognize and avoid these by subjecting each Slugger piece to a cursory inspection and identifying those which feature characteristic lack of paragraphing and a tenuous grasp on the technicalities of linking source articles. Although I generally evade Walker’s posts by this method, occasionally (and unfortunately) I have persevered and found that their content is as unrewarding as the style in which they are written. Today, for instance, I inflicted upon myself Brian’s thoughts on a mooted Fianna Fail / SDLP merger . In actual fact, he is right to welcome news that the Southern Irish party has dropped this proposal from its agenda; however, the logic by which he arrives at this conclusion is parochial nonsense. To summarise, Walker believes that pursuing realignment with larger parties, whether they are from the rest of the UK or fro
Read more